Uh... you can do that. You can play either a single season mode using your created cars, or using any real driver, or you can play a chase for the cup mode, where you just play through the last 10 races and run for the championship. Hard to trust a review that misses a detail like that.

That being said, I don't think its a very fair review at all. Online play, I can't really comment on, racing games online generally are pretty difficult to play since alot of people either are awful at it, or they like to just cause wrecks.

The visuals are outstanding in the game IMO. Cars look great, the tracks look great, the lighting and the effects on the cars are nice, smoke and car damage from crashes look good too.

Commentary is pretty difficult to pull off in a racing game IMO. I dont think it serves a purpose. I'm too busy listening to the roar of the engines, and hearing a car coming up behind you, or inside, or driving by, or hearing my car if it bottoms out on the track.

Bottom line to me... I think the experience this game creates overall offline is that of a great racing game. You can have some pretty awesome races against the AI. It has a few issues, sure, mainly online apparently, but I wouldnt know, but overall the career mode is nice, the paint booth is nice, the racing is fun, and challenging at times.

To be honest, a 5.5 out of 10 is way too negative IMO. For me, without factoring in online, because as I said, I dont play it, I think the game is easily a 7. I'm sure most that have it would agree that the offline racing can be really good, and alot of fun. Maybe a higher rating could be warratned if they had some more features and game play modes, and made the career even deeper, its a big step from where it was last year, but more depth is always great. Just felt like reading this review from the get go was going to be negative.

The sentence you quoted was me referring to the career mode. I found no way to use my favorite driver (Jeff Gordon) in that mode. Yes, you can use them in the season mode or Chase for the Cup mode, but that's not what I was talking about. Honestly, that's my fault for bad wording, so I'll try and get that fixed.

If this was a review just for the single player portion of the game, the score would be higher. But when reviewing the game I have to include everything, not just the improved career mode.

I said the visuals were outstanding and I stated it was the best looking NASCAR game to date.

As for the commentary, I know it's difficult to add that stuff in, I even said this: "it's not something that makes the career mode any less fun to play."

Also, the score I gave it was due to the way OS handles review scores, which can be found here: http://bit.ly/SKqH7H

If Eutechnyx keeps going with the license, I know they can make an extremely polished NASCAR game, but when finishing up this review, Inside Line is not that game.

The sentence you quoted was me referring to the career mode. I found no way to use my favorite driver (Jeff Gordon) in that mode. Yes, you can use them in the season mode or Chase for the Cup mode, but that's not what I was talking about. Honestly, that's my fault for bad wording, so I'll try and get that fixed.

If this was a review just for the single player portion of the game, the score would be higher. But when reviewing the game I have to include everything, not just the improved career mode.

I said the visuals were outstanding and I stated it was the best looking NASCAR game to date.

As for the commentary, I know it's difficult to add that stuff in, I even said this: "it's not something that makes the career mode any less fun to play."

Also, the score I gave it was due to the way OS handles review scores, which can be found here: http://bit.ly/SKqH7H

If Eutechnyx keeps going with the license, I know they can make an extremely polished NASCAR game, but when finishing up this review, Inside Line is not that game.

To follow on the score point -- most people consider a 7 or 7.5 to be average for a game. In our full 10 point scale, a 5.0 is probably more equivalent to what many are used to being a 7.

To follow on the score point -- most people consider a 7 or 7.5 to be average for a game. In our full 10 point scale, a 5.0 is probably more equivalent to what many are used to being a 7.

I getcha, Chris and VBishop, and everyone has their own opinion. VBishop felt 5.5 fit.

Taken from the OS scoring linked above:

5.0 - 5.5 (Average) -- This is the quintessential average game. There are good spots, there are bad spots. You might love this game, then you might hate it. In the end, you'll just feel like it could have been so much more. Rent these for sure if you are a fan, and you might even buy the game if you can overlook the many flaws.

6.0 - 6.5 (Above Average) -- These games are definitely above average, but definitely not good yet. There are still some big flaws that need tuning, but overall these games can be quite fun for fans of the sport.

7.0 - 7.5 (Good) -- These games are pretty good, and while having several notable flaws, they generally play well and are quite fun. They definitely are not great yet, but with a few fixes they could get there. These are solid buys, especially if you like the sport.

For me, I think if I were writing this up for OS, I'd go 6.5 based on this scale and the descriptions. Fun but still some big flaws that need tuning.

I do agree with VBishop on one point on releasing games as complete. Eutechnyx took a pretty good amount of time on this one and it should have come out of the chute better than it did from a MP point of view. I question whether their testing methods for online play are sufficient, or whether they just have that much of an issue coding online multiplayer.

Now, this next cycle they are taking basically two years to release the next NASCAR game. If the pin hasn't popped when that one comes out of the oven, I won't be kind.

The day that they incorporate the Nationwide and Truck series I will buy their game. Last years dissapointed me too much for me to buy this one. EA had a good game in NASCAR 07 and if the Inside Line team can get back to that kind of career mode they will be able to pull in a lot of us die hard fans. Until then I will continue to play NASCAR 07 on my PS2.

I wish they would do an all-encompasing racing game. A lot of NASCAR drivers started drving quarter midgets, midgets, sprints & then moved to NASCAR. I wish they could have a career mode where you start racing midgets, or sprints & work your wway through the standings in hopes of getting picked up as a driver for a NASCAR franchise. That would be cool, because you would have the open-wheel dirt & pavement racing combined with the NASCAR racing all in one game.

I really had no issue with what was said in the review just the score doesn't really reflect the positives of the game more the negatives which is mainly the multiplayer. That's what I like about OS we can have friendly debates no matter who's right or wrong. Always enjoy the articles that are written.